If you use an external email service to send emails, you can seamlessly integrate the email service with Contact Form 7 (CF7) using WP Mail SMTP. You can use this to automatically send & receive email notifications on your CF7 form submissions.
This feature may come in handy when:
- You are more comfortable using an external email service that you already use for your other projects.
- You don’t want to send form emails directly from your WordPress site.
- You are having trouble configuring the default CF7 mail.
In this article, we show you how to integrate WP Mail SMTP with external email services to receive emails on each form submission.
WP Mail SMTP
Using the WP Mail SMTP plugin, you can integrate your WordPress website with multiple external email services. You can use it for configuring WordPress settings to use an SMTP provider of your choice when sending emails from your CF7 forms.
With WP Mail SMTP you can integrate Contact Form 7 with multiple external email services such as:
Tip: You can find a list of all the SMTP integrations from WP Mail SMTP’s WordPress Directory page.
Integrating CF7 with an external email service using WP Mail SMTP
To integrate CF7 with an external email service using WP Mail SMTP, you must:
1. Setup the external email service to receive email notifications.
2. Install WP Mail SMTP on your WordPress website.
3. Integrate the external email service with WP Mail SMTP.
Tip: In this article, we show you how to integrate Mailgun with WP Mail SMTP. You can use a similar method to integrate it with the external email service of your choice.
1. Setup the external email service to receive email notifications
Follow these steps to setup Mailgun:
1. Create a Mailgun account.
Tip: If you want to use a different email service, refer to its specific website to create an account.
2. Go to Mailgun domains and click the sandbox domain link.
3. In the Authorized Recipients section, enter the email address where you want to receive email notifications.
4. Click Save Recipient.
5. Mailgun sends you a verification email. Follow the instructions in the email to verify your email address.
Tip: Every email service has a different method of sending emails. Make sure you refer to the documentation of the email service of your choice to configure email notifications.
2. Install WP Mail SMTP on your WordPress website
Follow these steps to install WP Mail SMTP:
1. On your WordPress website, go to Dashboard >> Plugins >> Add New and search for WP Mail SMTP.
2. Install and Activate the plugin.
3. Configure the WP Mail SMTP settings page.
WP Mail SMTP provides a settings page that allows you to configure various mailing options. From your WordPress Dashboard, go to WP Mail SMTP >> Settings to access the Settings page.
3. Integrate the external email service with WP Mail SMTP
After installing WP Mail SMTP, follow these steps to integrate it with Mailgun:
1. From your dashboard, Go to WP Mail SMTP >> Settings.
2. Add appropriate From Email and From Name.
Tip: Refer to our guide on using a suitable From: address.
3. Select the external email service of your choice. For this article, we choose Mailgun.
Tip: You may need to contact your hosting provider to get detailed information on the options provided by WP Mail SMTP.
4. Click the link under the API key. The link automatically takes you to the API key page for all email services.
5. Copy and paste the API key in the API Key text field.
Tip: If you are using Mailgun, follow the same steps to enter the Domain Name as well.
6. Click Save Settings.
7. Create a new CF7 form and go to the Mail tab. You can see that WP Mail SMTP automatically adds the email address you configured in Mailgun in the To field.
Tip: Now, the external email service receives the CF7 form data every time a user submits your form. The service then sends an email to the email address that you configured.
Further reading
- How to make a MailChimp contact form with Contact Form 7
- Using SMTP to send emails in Contact Form 7
- Use a suitable From: address
Have questions or need help?
If you are using the free version of CF7 Skins, you can get help via the CF7 Skins community and also the Contact Form 7 Support forum.
If you are using any of our Add-ons, we provide Premium Email Support to help with your questions and problems.
